let the wild rumpus begin!

so today . . . i am alone in my new house, all by myself, for three whole days :-)

i love my family. they are my favorite people on the planet. so i'm not quite sure why, but i occasionally need some extended solitude in my own house.

when we lived in oregon, rollie used to leave me fairly regularly. he would make short out-of-town trips every few months. but since we have moved to southern california, it almost never happens. because all of his meetings are now less than an hour away. unless traffic is bad. but traffic is never bad enough that he has to stay overnight somewhere...

this has been a craaaazy summer. between packing and moving and unpacking and going on vacation and starting school three weeks later than i normally do, i have completely lost track of time. which is how i find myself sitting here tonight all by myself...

...because several weeks ago, rollie was asked to speak at a retreat this weekend. he said yes. the retreat is for the church where my school is, so i thought it would be fun to go for at least part of it. but we are leaving on tuesday for a business trip and won't be back until saturday. which isn't a big deal, except my mom and dad are coming to visit NEXT FRIDAY. before we get home. so i have a lot to do...

and then, as i mentioned, i am not going to start working until the end of september. a perfectly capable substitute will be teaching my class. my wonderful assistant will be there to assist her. so i decided i was not going to even try to whip my classroom into shape. i decided i would just leave it alone and deal with it at the end of the month, and instead use the time to finish unpacking. and then, i got the class list...

for the first time, i will have more pre-k kids than kindergarteners. i am not thrilled about this, but that's the way it goes. at least i still have a job! but this change in enrollment is going to be a problem unless i make some changes in the classroom. so i spent almost five hours cleaning and rearranging furniture this afternoon. and i'm still not done. i'll be going back for a short (i hope!) time tomorrow morning. because i am almost done. i think.

and then, rollie asked me if i wanted to teach one of the sessions at the retreat. he asked me this about a month ago, and since it would help him and it's easy for me, i said, "sure!" i said this a month ago when i thought i was almost done unpacking (which clearly i wasn't!) so now i have to make some notes about what i am going to say tomorrow night. i know what i am going to say, and i don't get nervous about speaking, but if i don't have notes i tend to get off track--which can be entertaining, but sometimes i forget to say what i had planned to say...

...which is exactly what is happening on my blog tonight!! this was supposed to be about being home alone, and look what i've written so far! sheesh...

ok, so i'm home alone. i worked at school until almost 8:00 tonight, and then went to target. at 8:00 at night!! probably not a good idea. but i knew since i would be home alone, i was going to need snacks. and new nail polish. and while i was there, of course i wandered about. i found a perfect lamp to put on my piano, and it was on sale for only $13! but then as i looked at it, i realized that i was going to need to buy a shade. so i looked at shades, but the shades cost more than the base! the base!! the part with all the electrical parts (and a bonus free light bulb,) was cheaper than the part consisting of a wire and a bit of fabric. which was bad enough, but then i couldn't figure out how to attach the shade to the lamp. i thought maybe that was why it was on sale, but there were lots of lamps with no visible way to attach a shade, so i don't know...

and then i saw these.pillow pets of the anaheim angels rally monkey!! (ok, i know they are now the los angeles angels, but really, i don't know how anyone who calls themselves a fan can refer to them that way! los angeles has a team--the dodgers. angels stadium is in anaheim. they are, and always will be, the anaheim angels. it isn't rocket science, people. it's marketing.) i love pillow pets! i have loved them since i went on a hunt to find one for my nephew at christmas. they are cute and soft and cushy. the main reason i don't already have one, is that i haven't been able choose just one. but i think now i have--this is the pillow pet for me. sadly, it didn't get to come home with me today, because i was already carrying nail polish, cheetos, a shade-less lamp, and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. (oh, did i forget to mention the cookies? they weren't my first choice, but i couldn't find the devil donuts.)

i wandered back to the lawn and garden section by way of the school supplies. thankfully my hands were too full to pick up any pens or markers, but there was a giant CLEARANCE sign above the outdoor stuff. i don't know what there is about clearance signs that make me suddenly feel the need to purchase something. i was looking at gardening tools (even though we have a gardener who takes care of our yard,) decorative pots in all sizes and colors (even though we have all these empty plant beds around the edges of our yard just screaming for me to plant something in them,) and grilling accessories (even though we don't have a bar-be-que yet.) i managed to talk some sense into myself and headed for the cash registers. without any clearance merchandise.

and then a miracle happened (other than making it out of the store without buying any clearance merchandise)...

...because i have a track record at target. it doesn't matter what line i get into, the people ahead of me in line inevitably have problems with their transactions. my line is always, ALWAYS the slowest line in the store. always. but tonight i found a cash register with no line at all! the cashier was just standing there, probably counting the minutes until the store would close and she could go home.

it was pretty exciting for me.

i got home, pillow petless, but with snacks and new nail polish. i let the dogs out, watched some tivo and ate my sourdough jack. i was home alone. in my new house. and feeling pretty good.

and then i needed to go upstairs...

i don't normally get weird about being home alone. but i started up the stairs, and then realized that the back door was open. the back door was open, because we don't have a doggie door installed yet. so when we are home, we just leave the back door open so the pups can go in and out whenever they want. but it suddenly occurred to me that if i went upstairs, and the dogs followed me, then someone could come in the back door unnoticed. and i watch enough tv to know that when someone sneaks in your back door, it never ends well.

i turned around and closed and locked the door. i started to set the alarm, but then remembered that i can't set the alarm if the upstairs windows are open. since we have a big covered patio, our upstairs windows are apparently vulnerable to intrusions. although, it seems to me that by the time a crazed criminal could scramble up onto our tiled roof and get through a window, the dogs would have alerted the whole neighborhood and mia would be waiting to eat him. or her. but who am i to argue with the security company...

so here i sit. all alone. by myself in my new house.

for three more days :-)